Officials at the Covenant School, the Nashville Christian elementary school where a trans killer barged in on March 27 and gunned down three 9-year-olds and three adults, have filed to intervene in a lawsuit seeking the public disclosure of a manifesto the shooter left behind.
The National Police Association and Tennessee-based private investigator Clara Brewer are suing city and county officials, demanding copies of Audrey Hale's writings, which were recovered from the killer's vehicle and home after the shooting.
A judge is expected to make a decision in June, according to the NPA. In addition to the manifesto, the NPA is also seeking copies of police communications related to the document.
The police group said the Covenant School is asking to protect floor plans of its facility and personnel information and that the NPA does not object. A judge has scheduled the next hearing for Thursday afternoon.
AUDREY HALE POLICE BODYCAMS RELEASED
The killer wrote a manifesto, kept journals and made hand-drawn maps and diagrams of the school, with possible entry points and illustrations that depicted a shooter wearing the same outfit that Hale wore on the day of the shooting, police said after responding officers killed the attacker.
Police previously released surveillance video that showed the heroics of responding police officers as they stormed the building and killed Hale in front of a second-story window, which is where the killer was shooting at police outside.
According to its website, the Covenant School opened in 2001 as part of the Covenant Presbyterian Church and served children from pre-K through sixth grade.
The child victims included the pastor's daughter, Hallie Scruggs, as well as Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. Police identified the adults as 60-year-old Head of School Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61.
NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING: OFFICERS WHO TOOK OUT COVENANT SHOOTER IDENTIFIED
Court records suggested Hale had no criminal history in Metro Nashville or Davidson County.
Investigators served a search warrant at Hale's home about three miles away from the church and school.
Hale was an artist who attended the Nossi College of Art and Design.
The killer was also recently seeing a doctor due to an emotional disorder and had legally purchased the seven guns from five stores leading up to the attack, police said.
Hale slept with journals on other school shootings under her bed in her parents' house. Police seized the journals and a trove of documents and electronic devices, court filings reveal. Hale also left behind a suicide note on a desk under one of several laptops police recovered near a list of passwords in the bedroom.
Hale's parents were unaware that the school shooter owned any guns after purportedly selling the single one they knew about, Chief John Drake said in March.
"They were under the impression that when she sold the weapon, she did not own any more," he said. "As it turned out, she was hiding several weapons inside the house."
Armed with three guns, Hale arrived at the school around 10:15 a.m. March 27, blasted out a side door and went on a rampage inside.
When Hale burst in, the first victim, Hill, sustained fatal gunshot wounds in the process. According to city officials, Koonce heard the first shots while on a Zoom call, hung up and confronted Hale. Police found her dead in the hallway outside her office.
Drake said investigators had not immediately determined a motive but believed that Hale, a former student, had targeted the school and its affiliated church.
By 10:30 a.m., responding officers fatally shot the killer on the second floor.
